Feel Human Again

The Change(1)

"This is disgusting!", Julia said, turning her head away and pretending to throw up.
"It's healthy! The people in Norway used to eat a spoonful of this a day!", her dad argued.

Julia's Dad's New Years Resolution was to be more healthy. And while for normal people, that would probably mean eating less sugar or going to the gym,  for Julia's Dad that also meant swallowing a spoon full of Cod liver oil a day.

"Yeah, I wonder why they don't do that anymore.", the girl asked sarcastically while starring at the bottle with horror.

"Oh come on! Just one, and then I'll leave you alone. I promise.", her dad kept going but Julia was having none of it.
"Forget it Dad. I'm not drinking that.", she answered with a smile. That was so typical of her dad. Coming up with some crazy idea and trying to get the entire family to go along with it.

"What if we make a deal? You drink one and I will make your sister drink one before dinner.", her dad suggested with a devilish grin.

Julia paused for a moment, thinking over her options. Sarah was going to go crazy, she absolutely hated fish oil. And then Julia thought of her pink fluffy hoodie, that was currently somewhere in her sisters closet.

"Alright, fine, I'll do it.", she gave in.
Her dad just looked at her with a grin that told Julia he had known she was going to say yes all along and then held the spoon full with the yellow liquid to the girls face.

"Why am I doing this to myself?", Julia whispered to herself before swallowing it as fast as she could.

Then she ran over to the sink, grabbed a glass and filled it with water. She chugged down the water as quickly as possible, in an attempt to get rid of the taste.

"Oh my god.", she sighed and stared at her father accusingly. How could he do that every day?

"Hey, look at it like this, at least you're done with it now.", and then with a snort her father continued:" And think of your sisters face when she has to drink it."

That made Julia smile as well. Knowing that she would get to see that made it worth it.
"Yeah, that's going to...", she said and then stopped abruptly.

"Jules? Are you ok?", her dad asked and started walking towards her.

"I... I don't know.", the girl answered truthfully.  
She wasn't in pain, but she had this feeling as if something inside her was twisting.
It didn't hurt, but it wasn't exactly pleasant either.

She was about to tell her dad that it was probably nothing, when she noticed his horrified glance towards her feet.
Julia looked down at herself and screamed.

There was a brown shell growing up her feet. Julia tried to step away but she couldn't move.
"Dad! Help!", she screamed with panic.
Her father came rushing toward her, but by the time he reached her the shell had almost reached her face.
"Jules!", he screamed, grabbing the shell and trying to break it, but nothing was happening.

"I love you daddy.", Julia whispered to him with tears in her eyes. Suddenly she was completely calm.
And then the shell grew over her face and everything went completely black.

Julia didn't remember much of what happened in the shell, all she knew is that in spite of everything, she wasn't scared anymore. She felt safe, like this was where she was supposed to be.

And the next thing she knew was that there was a shockwave, that seemed to be coming from everywhere at once.
And then the shell shattered around her and her body fell to the floor.

"Jules!", she heard her father's voice and then she felt strong arms pulling her up to her knees.
Julia opened her eyes slowly, and saw her dad standing over her, looking at her with fear.

"Jules, are you ok?", he asked and she could only nod. Yes, she was feeling more than okay, she felt great.
Her dad sighed with relief and pulled the scared girl into a tight embrace.

"I'm fine dad.", she whispered, not quiet trusting her voice.
After what felt like forever her father pushed her away from him gently, and cupped her cheek as he said:" It's over now, Jules. You're ok."

Jules nodded, even though she wasn't sure which one of them he was trying to convince with this.
She looked around the living room. If it weren't for the remains of the shell on the ground and th horrified look in her dads expression, Julia could have easily pretended all of this hadn't happened.

"I'm going to go lie down dad.", she said and slowly made her way up to her room.  As soon as she closed the bedroom door, the tears she had been holding in started streaming down her face.

She just sat on her bed, sobbing. She tried to keep it quiet, as she didn't want her dad to worry even more than he already did.

Julia was overreacting, she knew she was. But she just couldn't stop the tears from falling.

After about 30 minutes of just crying, the tears finally stopped. Julia stood up and ventured to the mirror on her closet.

She looked awful. Her  brown eyes were red and puffy from the crying, her lip was bleeding from where she had bit down on it and her blond hair was standing up in all directions.

She tried smoothing down her hair a bit, but gave it up quickly.
Julia went back downstairs, as she couldn't stand the silence.

She was halfway down the stairs, when she heard her mom's voice asking:" Should we bring her to a doctor?"

There was a pause and then Julia's dad answered:" And tell him what? Our daughter turned into a giant rock? He'll think we're all out of our minds."

That was when he noticed Julia standing at the bottom of the stairs.
"Hey Jules. How are you feeling?"

"I'm okay.", Julia answered, and to her surprise, that wasn't even a lie.
Sure, she was still shocked, by what had just happened, but it was over.
She could just go back to living her normal live, right.

Wrong